A data processing system is known that performs business processing using one or plural computers. When the business processing employs plural computers, dependency relationships sometimes exist between the computers. A relationship in which an execution result of a second computer is employed in order to perform business processing on a first computer is an example of a dependency relationship between plural computers. In a data processing system that performs business processing using plural computers, the placement of each of the plural computers is decided with consideration of countering emergencies such as power cuts, distribution of the load of processing executed by the computers, and the computer processing capacity of the computers corresponding to the business processing, and the like.
Recently, virtualization technology has been implemented that constructs plural virtual computers on a single physical computer, with objectives such as increasing the utilization efficiency of physical computers. Migration to other physical computers is possible for virtual computers constructed by virtualization technology. In recent years, data processing systems have been implemented that perform business processing using plural computers including virtual computers.
Physical computers and virtual computers need to be managed so as to achieve smooth business processing in data processing systems. Plural physical computers and virtual computers with dependency relationships are sometimes handled as groups in order to manage plural physical computers and virtual computers in the data processing system. When managing groups, namely, plural physical computers and virtual computers for which dependency relationships exist, a user considers power cut countermeasures, load distribution, processing capacity, and the like. Based on the considered power cut countermeasures, load distribution, processing capacity, and the like, the user performs management by setting operating locations indicating on which physical computer a virtual computer operates, by manual operation. For business processing using plural virtual computers, there are, for example, cases in which causing the plural virtual computers to operate on one of the physical computers is preferable, and cases in which distributing operation between separate physical computers is preferable. Therefore, sometimes there is a need to manage the operating locations of virtual computers included in groups.
As an example of a technology that manages plural computers, a technology is known that manages communications between virtual computers in which mutual communication is performed between the plural virtual computers. In the technology that manages communication between computers, communication permission between groups is managed by a policy indicating allow/disallow settings for mutual communications set in advance by a user. Groups that include plural virtual computers are defined and modified according to a user's manual operations.
A technology is also known in which plural virtual computers are grouped by a management device. In the technology in which plural virtual computers are grouped, groups are formed according to information, obtainable from the plural virtual computers, indicating the business processing performed by the virtual computers.
In an example of a technology in which a virtual computer operating on a given physical computer is caused to migrate, virtual computers are relocated according to operation states such as limitations imposed by hardware resources, or a processing load, of the physical computers on which the virtual computers operate.
A technology is also known in which, when relocating virtual computers, virtual computers are relocated while maintaining predefined group information indicating that plural virtual computers are included. In an example of a technology in which virtual computers are relocated while maintaining group information, group information predefined by a user is obtained, indicating whether plural virtual computers are to be located on different physical computers, or to be located on the same physical computer. The virtual computers are then relocated such that the group information is maintained.